I just love French cuisine, especially French patisserie. They are (usually) simple, not greasy and literally melt on your tongue. This also applies to a very popular French Lemon Meringue Tart or in French Tarte au citron meringuée. Since I had a lot of eggs, I finally decided to try it and I definitely don´t regret it because everyone loved it. Tart dough is traditional, but you add lemon filling similar to lemon curd and meringue. Filling is very delicious and has a nice original unobtrusive taste, not the artificial one at all. You can use a blow torch to bake meringue, but I used only an oven with top heating. This tart combines crispy dough, delicious creamy lemon filling and sweet crispy-creamy meringue. You should definitely try it, I bet you will like it, same as everyone else will.
- Dough:
- 250 g all purpose flour
- 150 g butter
- 80 g icing sugar
- 1 egg
- A pinch of salt
- Lemon filling:
- 90 g melted butter
- Juice of 3 lemons
- Zest of 1 ½ lemon
- 3 eggs
- 130 g icing sugar
- 15 g cornstarch
- Meringue:
- 2 egg whites
- 60 g caster sugar
- 60 g icing sugar
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Dough:
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Mix and combine flour with butter, icing sugar, egg and salt. Process it using hands or mixer. Put the dough covered with plastic wrap in a refrigerator for an hour.
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Take the dough out after an hour, roll it out on a floured work surface and put it on the greased baking tart pan. Cut off the remaining dough around the edge of the baking pan. Cover the dough with baking paper and weigh it down with, for example, legume.
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Bake 15 - 20 minutes on 180 degrees or until edges begin to brown. Take it out from the oven, remove the baking paper and legume, leave it cool.
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Lemon filling:
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Mix melted butter with lemon juice, lemon zest, eggs, icing sugar and cornstarch.
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Put the bowl on the top of another bowl filled with water, stir filling in water bath on medium fire until it thickens. Stir constantly, the filling will firstly look runny, but it will thicken progressively, it will get a consistency similar to cooked pudding.
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Set it aside and let it cool.
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Press cooled filling through a sieve, pour it in the baked tart shell and put it in the refrigerator for about 2 hours.
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Meringue:
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Whip the egg whites. Whip to soft peaks, add caster sugar while whisking constantly.
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Beat until the meringue forms a thick and shiny mixture, it forms stiff peaks.
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Carefully incorporate sifted icing sugar using a spatula.
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Apply meringue over filling using a spatula or a spoon.
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Put tart in the oven, bake it on top heating on 200 degrees for 10 – 14 minutes in order meringue is crisp and slightly colored.
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Be careful not to overbake it, since meringue burns quickly.
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Let it cool and put it in the refrigerator, preferably over night.
- baking pan - 25 cm
- Recipe adapted from 750 g Le Mag 3/2013
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